Smart toolkit tailors feed to need

AQUACULTURE is becoming better equipped than ever before to capitalise on sophisticated analytical software and converging technologies to improve farming production.

At the forefront of this evolution is AquaSim, Skretting’s integrated digital platform that combines biology, quality and economics alongside sensors, feeders, the internet of things (IoT) and other connected technologies.

The toolkit uses data to calculate expected performance and provide real-time production upgrades on an individual farm by farm basis.

More than 1.5 billion farmed fish and shrimp have already been harvested through AquaSim’s recommendations.

Embedding these smart control mechanisms into fish and shrimp farming systems, and feeding data back into the analytics process, provides unprecedented visibility into production processes and the ability to truly optimise the value of the biomass.

‘AquaSim brings real-time data and big data together in a smarter farm environment to enable far more informed, proactive decision making,’ said Kristoffer Tveit,

Skretting’s international product manager.

‘By harnessing the latest technologies available, AquaSim is an evolving global solution that is constantly seeking to progress fish and shrimp farm agility, optimisation, transparency and proactivity.

‘Investing in these capabilities and becoming better connected is enabling these farmers to differentiate themselves and their products in a fast changing marketplace.’

AquaSim utilises aquaculture species’ growth and feeding models built up by Skretting’s research teams over three decades.

Based on appraisals of individual farming environments and each farm’s production targets and inputs, AquaSim provides tailored recommendations, including the most cost effective stocking patterns, feed selection and feeding strategy to achieve the desired outcomes.

Furthermore, with no two farming sectors having the same requirements, its flexibility allows different regions to fulfil those functions that are most important to local needs.

While AquaSim represents a decisive shift for the aquaculture industry, Skretting said it is far from finished expanding its connected capabilities and algorithms.

The steady stream of new sensors being made available to the market provides scope to measure many new parameters, and it is also being rolled out to more species, with many more in the pipeline.